05/12/2014
Below is the article that was published in the parish magazine for everyone's information;
Pixiefield Over development!
You may have recently read or heard about a proposed development of up to 60 houses on the field next to the Pixiefield cul-de-sac. There certainly appears to be a lot of interest and concern, judging by the 137 representations made so far in the planning process, most of which were from Cradley residents and most of which were to register an objection.
If you haven’t been keeping tabs on events, the current position is that despite the well voiced objections of the Parish Council and local residents, Herefordshire Council has granted outline planning permission for this estate to go ahead, although the number of houses to be permitted will not be decided until later.
We want fair and reasonable development of the village
While we all recognise the need for the village to develop in line with national requirements and the need to provide affordable housing, meeting the entire identified housing requirement for the next 17 years through a single oversized estate, outside the settlement boundary, will cause more problems than it will solve. Cradley residents know that the village can and is growing organically with developments like St Katherine’s Field and Dragonwyck and will continue to do so.
The problems over development will bring to the village
An estate of 60 houses at this site will not only cause problems for the current residents of Pixiefields but across the village as a whole. The access road is proposed to be through the quiet Pixiefield cul-de-sac. Not only will this traffic be joining Bosbury Road at the Chockbury Lane junction, which has poor visibility of traffic on the main road, it will increase traffic through Pixiefield and the rest of the village by up to 300 journeys per day.
There is great concern about potentially increased flood risk. A large development here will lose the natural soak provided by the field. Existing problem areas that flood during heavy rain can only get worse. Some houses on Pixiefield already suffer from occasional flooding from run-off from the field, and the main road often floods by the doctor’s surgery. There are also no plans to improve the sewage pumping station at King’s Bridge, so are we likely to see more sewage on the road in the future?
There is also the question of the adequacy of infrastructure and facilities in the village. The doctor’s surgery and school may not be able to expand to meet demand, and the proposed estate being so far from the school and without adequate footpaths will only lead to more cross-village traffic and congestions at school-times. Additionally, the minimal public transport service and lack of local employers will mean that the majority of households on this new estate will have one or two cars in use every day.
And let’s not forget two years of HGV’s and diggers constantly working and travelling in the village while this place is built!
We need to be heard or we will live with the consequences!
Despite all the objections and comments raised by Cradley’s residents and Parish Council, this development is going ahead now. When the developer has finished work here and moved on to their next project, we will be left to with the flooding and sewage, traffic, overcapacity at the school and doctor’s surgery.
Many people made their feelings heard at the village meeting on 3rd November organised by the Parish Council and put their names forward to help resist this over development in the village. It’s the people of the village who must now stand up and make their views known.
A small organising committee for “Pixiefield Over development” came out of that meeting of Nic Calvert (Chair), Elizabeth and John Gilbert, Chris Robinson and Samantha Mason and a first meeting was held on 13th November to organise getting our message to the right eyes and ears.
We need to say, loud and clear, that this estate must be limited to no more than 25 houses!
How can I get involved and help?
We need to act now, before the final application is put in. We intend to organise a petition to canvas every household inside the settlement boundary. If you kindly volunteered to help with the petition then you may be contacted soon as we try and build a team to cover every corner of the main settlement. We also intend to have the petition available to sign at the Christmas Fayre.
If you’re worried or concerned about this development and its potential impact on flooding, sewerage, traffic and accidents, the school, the doctors or the environmental impact of all those additional car journeys, please make sure you sign the petition, and encourage your friends and family members to do the same. It would be wonderful to get everyone of voting age with concern about this development in Cradley to sign the petition. Remember, this is not knee jerk anti-development NIMBYism. We sincerely believe that this one-off, huge and out-of-character development is absolutely the wrong way to increase housing capacity in our village.
We also intend to speak with our County Councillors to explain our concerns and make sure they understand the strength of feeling in the village. This is why the petition is so important. It is a tangible demonstration of the numbers of people with issues about this development!
Join in – Have your say!
As a first step, we have set up a Facebook group so people can discuss, ask questions and debate these concerns, as well as any other village interests. You can find this page at https://www.facebook.com/cradleyvillage. We’ll be aiming to keep this up to date so you can ‘follow’ the page to get updates. You can also post messages on there to contact us (or use the details below) if you want to help, have suggestions or useful skills or contacts.
Please get involved! If we can speak with a reasoned and unified voice, we can keep this development sensible and fair for all of the residents of the village, as well as those on Pixiefield. Remember, next time it might be on your doorstep!
Chris Robinson on behalf of “Pixiefield Over development”
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